Entries from July 2002 ↓

Going on a 14 day sailing trip tommorow. 14 days with no computers or mobile phones. (Actually not 100% correct as we will be bringing a laptop with navigation software and a cable
connecting it to our GPS unit.).
Still it will be some time without any of the factors that usually make up such a large part of my life and I am really looking forward to it. Need some time doing something completely different in order to get my internal batteries up to max again.

Also got my papers in order for my .au work permit application. Will get it sent of as soon as I return from my vacation.

Was also happy to learn that thomasvs is doing very well at the GNOME summit in Boston doing two GStreamer talks.

Bothersome weather in Oslo today, warm hot air coupled with clouds and lots of humidity. Walk like 5 minutes outside and you feel like you have been working out for an hour. Clothes cling to your body and your skin feels like it is getting clogged up and can’t breathe.

On the free software side we did a successfull release of GStreamer 0.4.0. Think the new rpm apt repository and Red Carpet channel will make things much easier for people. Next step is to get a release of the player out. It still has some annoying bugs, but it is definetly useable as a test application. Bother that jorn as away on vacation for the next 14 days as a Rhythmbox release would also be nice. Of course delaying the release 14 days do give them time to get seeking working.

Not done much this week of substance either at work or else. Closest thing this week was getting the new summary out on monday, but that I had mostly done on saturday. I think hot and humid is not the kind of weather that energises me. More of a dry and hot kind of guy :)

Question of the day? Is using threads the way to kill portability? We have been strugling with differences in threads between i386 and i686 on Linux, but it seems that there are thread problems on FreeBSD also. Can’t help but wonder what suprises are in store for use on Solaris and HP-UX *Grumble*

I see lot of people commenting on Tromey‘s
question about amount of ‘it sucks’ mail. Unfortunatly it is not a uncommon thing. In all the projects I have been involved
in I have experienced it and also seen the energy wasted reacting to it. The bad thing is that it seems like the tendency for these kind of mails are increasing as the popularity of free software systems increases as we get more and more users and unfortunatly also developers who are more acustomed to complaining and critizing than appreciating the effort being done volunterialy by others.

Like everyone else I have pieces of software I think stinks, but there a large step from that to mailing the author telling him/her that is sucks and that they should get a clue. Unless you have the energy to send in a constructive mail and/or good bug reports you are doing everyone a favour by not giving feedback about things you are unhappy about.

On a related note I noticed that John ‘Maddog’ Hall was quoted on LWN today I think about a talk he did about the importance of saying ‘thank you’ in free software. He did a similar talk at GUADEC and after that I have tried to be more aware and send authors of applications I like a little mail sayings thanks for the nice/cool application/library they are making. Also a mail with some praise of the application/library and a bugfix/feature request has a 110% higher chance of actually getting you that bugfix/feature than a flame telling the author what a buggy piece of shit he/she is making.

Somehow we must make people aware that in the free software world they are not customers, at least not of the developer.

Been doing lots of little non-linux/non-gnome related stuff the last few days. Discovered that I have a scheduled talk with my boss in a month where we are to discuss my progress the last year. So I am now started reading up to at least get one or two Oracle RDBMS certifications exams before the talk since that was what we put on my schedule for this last year which was my personal responsibilty to do. Urk, that stuff is boring.

My sailboat is still not close to getting on the water and it seems it will be a couple of more weeks before it is. The guy who is supposed to install the engine is having some trouble finding someone to get us the correct coneing of the propel shaft. Argh, now half the summer is already gone. Bet it will start raining the last half. God how I curse that day I bought that boat.

Bought myself Never Winter Nights the other day, first game I bought in a year at least. Nice enough, but I am waiting for the the Linux binaries before really starting to play and even then I guess it will not be long before I decide to let it rest as I am not really into playing games anymore.

Seems many of the small anoyances of GNOME2 is being sorted out now for 2.0.1; menu editing and window manager chooser capplet for instance.

Many little fixes going into the GStreamer tree the last few days as we prepare for 0.4.0. Can’t help but feeling a little anoyed about the known scheduler bugs we will be shipping with. Stupidest thing is that I have really no reason to be annoyed, bugs that I have not even managed to trigger myself is not really something I should let bother me, still the knowledge that they are there gnaws on my soul. Guess part of my irritation is that I feel the hard work thomasvs and wingo have put into the two schedulers over the last 2-3 weeks, not to mention the work wingo spent on writing the new scheduler, should be rewarded higher by the powers that be.

Well hopefully we will be able to nail the bugs sometime after the 0.4.0 release so that we can concentrate on more polish level fixes in prepartion for GStreamer 0.5.0 and its inclusion in GNOME 2.2

Was working today on getting the last papers I need from current and former employers in regard to being able to send of the first set of papers to .au for approval. Starting to regret that I didn’t get a good reference letter from my former employer when I left 3 years ago. Seems all the people I knew, or who knew me has left of other pastures too. What I have done now is write the reference myself, so I will send it of to them hopeing a kind soul bothers to print it on company paper and sign it.

thomasvs has been working hard to fix our (GStreamer)scheduler the last few days. Luckily the bug isn’t a showstopper for a 0.4.0 release (hey, still a long way to 1.0.0 :). Rhythmbox our primary sample application only gets problems with the current bug if you start it and let it play over 500 songs without stop.